


Back to the Basics

by The Danish Prince (Yumoh)



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, I suck at tags like oof, M/M, Pining, Reincarnation, Ryan is oblivious, Shane is a besotted fool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-18 09:40:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15482931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yumoh/pseuds/The%20Danish%20Prince
Summary: The greek gods and goddesses reincarnation au that no one wanted but I wrote anyway.





	1. Chapter 1

Persephone was gone. It had been one of their bigger fights and of course it had gotten too  heated. He ran a hand through his hair thinking of all the stupid shit he said that he regretted. They had always had their fights but after a decade or two they always made up even in their worst moments. What he hadn’t expected was finding out she had decided to be reborn. They had never reincarnated without the other. It was like their fun little game as they had always been reborn together. Now matter what they managed to find each other during their times as mortals. On earth they had fallen in love as king and queen, soldiers in great wars, thieves, peasants, women, and men. As the same string of fate pulled them together every time. But this time she had decided to be reborn by herself. 

 

What's worse is that she left behind her symbol of power, her delicately woven crown of flowers. She risked being trapped in the process of reincarnation cycle as she may not have enough power to regain her immortal form. He couldn’t even imagine what it would be without her. Hades made up his mind to find her in the mortal world and giving her back the crown so she would be powerful enough to become regain her form again once time was up. First he settled his business in the underworld and made sure that it would run fine in absence. He consulted his fellow gods to inform them of his absence. His last visit was to  Mnemosyne, goddess of memory, to ask for a favor.

 

He knelt in front of her and asked her to hear his request. She nodded and he began, “I need you to guarantee my memory is intact when I’m reborn as a human.”

 

As expected she gave him a withering look and said, “You know that is against the rules.”

 

He sighed and said, “Of course I do I helped make the rules but you know to me  Persephone is worth bending the rules for.”

 

She said, “If and I mean If I help you with this will you promise to do me a favor.”

 

He narrowed his eyes, “What kind of a favor?”

 

“Don’t give me that look Hades It’s not anything sinister, one of my daughters was reborn and I want you to check on her, She said.

 

“Which one of them was it this time?” Hades said.

 

“Thalia,” she said.

 

“So do we have a deal?” Hades said.

 

Mnemosyne said, “Yes, you go woo back your wife.”

 

After this visit he was prepared to be reborn, he carried both helm and Persephone’s crown.  The moments before his rebirth, he uttered a silent prayer to the Fates that they helped reunite him and his love.

 

He became conscious in his human vessel as he let out his first red faced squalls into the world.  Hades was adjusting to this sudden change as he went from god to a small powerless infant. He was completely at the mercy of fate. He spent his first months getting used to human life again. His name was different as his cooing parents called him Shane. As Shane, life was simple for those first couple years. He was an average child. All he had to do was let himself be taken care of. But there was still this feeling of something missing as he thought of is Persephone.

 

Memories of her were a constant in his head like a favorite movie that he played over and over in his mind’s eye. The first time he caught sight of her in that field of flowers; his breath catching in his throat. The ghost sensation of her fingers running through his hair. The sound of her infectious laugh. Her big smile that was brighter than all creation. Sometimes he wondered where was Persephone reborn?  What did Persephone look like? Would they love him when they met again? All he could be certain of was that he was in for a wait.

 

So he became Shane. An average man who was kinda tall and had a dry sense of humor. He was regarded as completely logical and preferred fact to feeling. He had a job at a media platform, Buzzfeed. He was living a normal and happy life. That was until someone pointed out the new guy to him at a work party he had been dragged to. Shane had vaguely heard his name during work that week it had started with an R or something and he had a hard to pronounce last name like he did. It wasn’t until he first saw him, he knew how fucked he truly was.

 

  Once he saw him, something instinctively tol d him in an awed voice, “that damn that’s the one”. It didn’t have a rhyme or reason, nothing physical marked them as soulmates or anything but he could feel the connection. He wondered if Persephone’s reincarnation could feel it too even without their full power capacity. All he knew is that he would be stuck deeply in love with someone he had known since the beginning of time yet had not a single memory of him.

 

He asked his friend who the new cowork was? His friend said, “Ryan,” It somehow seemed to fit him. Ryan was short like he was sure that he would tower over the little guy if he walked over. This must be karma after the last reincarnation as humans, where he was almost a foot shorter than Persephone and was constantly teased about it.

 

Shane tried not to stare at Ryan as he tried to come up with some way to deal with this. You’d think with all of his infinite wisdom and literal years to plan this, he had thought of a plan. He would somehow have to convince Ryan that Greek Gods are real and then get to him to let Shane put a glowing flower crown on his head.  This was already giving him a migraine. All he could do he guessed was put his faith in the Fates and hope that somehow he plucked up the courage to talk to Ryan. 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey thanks for the support on this guys and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

The next couple weeks were both torture and heaven. Shane kept seeing Ryan everywhere. Shane could still remember the day he almost choked on his coffee when one of his friends in camera crew sent him pics from the shoot of a video on men trying on female swimsuits. Ryan in that red swimsuit was too much for his poor damned soul to handle. 

He had at this point googled, “How to seduce your amnesiac soulmate,” which unsurprisingly had little results. It was kind of fruitless to pine after someone silently as that was going to do nothing. So in the meantime while he moped over a man with the cutest everything, he had a favor to complete.

 

Shane still retained some of his powers as a mortal like his control over the dead and underworld beings and the ability to see the beings of that were hidden from mortal sight. The one side effect of this however was that his eyes would turn pitch black in response as he gained his new sight. One of his past reincarnations had permanently pitch black eyes. The poor young man was labeled a demon as a baby and was left in the woods to die. It was like a nightmare as he constantly saw things that others couldn’t. In this life, he avoided using this power as much as possible as he didn’t wish to know how many monsters were lurking in plain sight.

 

He still had contact with his loyal Furies who he could summon with little needed effort. Since Thalia could be anywhere, he decided to send them on a search in the mortal world for where she might be and to report back as soon as possible.  He expected the process to take a month or two as the odds of the gods being all in the same spot is highly unlikely as only a handful of gods actually choose rebirth at a time. But as just about everything in his life is unusual, his furies came back only a couple of days later to say that Thalia was currently one of his coworkers in fact, it was Quinta of all people.

 

He asked his furies to report back to Mesones that Thalia was safe. But Shane now wondered what he was supposed to do with that information. Thalia had always been his favorite of the muses as she was the only one who laughed at his jokes besides Persephone.  Also Thalia took her comedic mask with her when she was reborn so she must have some recollection of being a goddess as Quinta. Definitely not completely intact ones like his own but fragments. Or at the very least an awareness of the fact she wasn’t completely human. Although as a muse of comedy, her powers wouldn’t manifest as strongly as his did as one of the most powerful gods.  

 

For example when he was reborn as a young girl in the 19th century, she had been  born blind however could “see” and “hear” the other world beyond. Her parents had at first been horrified when she described her vision of dead people that stuck around. They almost put her in an asylum but she managed to escape. Eventually she became a medium that channelled the dead to speak to loved ones. She had become quite famous traveling all over to use her gift.  She had been conducting a seance when she clasped hands with the women who would change her life. It was Persephone who in that life was a wealthy widow who had arrange to speak with her dead husband. They eventually became lovers and stayed together until her passing of old age.

 

The powers of a reincarnated deity were fickle and no two incarnations had the same level of powers or specific set of power. As the stronger the powers, the more likely the mortal’s mind will fracture especially when it came to the more powerful gods.Only a small percentage of his reincarnations ever fully regained the memories of being Hades and still managed to hang on to their marbles.

 

He wanted to know how much Quinta remembered. It would be nice if was able to find someone to talk about the struggle of being a reincarnated. It was odd to think that one moment that everyone was calling, “my lord” or whatever and the next someone is calling him, “Shane (insert whatever bullshit they thought was the right pronunciation of his last name).” Also before he was running the underworld dealing with a constant influx dead souls and now he was producing weird quizzes for the internet.

 

The  next day at work he tried to be casual when he walked into the breakroom where Quinta was making herself some coffee.  

 

“Hey Quinta, how do you feel about the Greek Gods,” Shane said, internally screaming.

 

He watched carefully as for just a fraction of second, Quinta froze up before saying, “ I don’t feel much at all about them as they are fictional,” Quinta said.

 

“What if you hypothetically you were a reincarnated version of one of them and you hypothetically met someone else who was in the same boat?” Shane replied. He knew that if she for some reason didn’t have much memories then he would forever now be labeled the weirdo who was far too into Greek mythology.  

 

Quinta gave him a pointed look before replying, “If I was in your stupid hypothetical situation, then as a reborn god or goddess or whatever I would ask for a sign of the proof from the other person.”

 

Shane thought for a moment as to what would be the easiest. If he let his eyes go black for a moment that was his safest bet. If she didn’t have as much memory as he hoped then he could explain it away as a trick of light. Once he changed them back Quinta looked a little rattled but pretty damned good for finding out her coworker was a Greek God. He quickly gave her a filler on the gaps in her memories and confirmed that she was in fact an reincarnated deity.

 

“So I’m guessing you’re Hades?” Quinta said.

 

“Pleased to see ya again Thalia,” Shane said.

 

“What are you doing in the rebirth cycle since you said it’s rare that upper level Gods go through the system?” Quinta said.

 

“Persephone ditched me after a fight and I came back to Earth to give back her symbol of power to ensure she won't be trapped in the reincarnation cycle.” Shane said casually.

 

Quinta raised her brow, “Have you found Persephone yet?”

 

“Yes actually and now I’m stuck on what to do,” Shane said kinda glad to finally get this off his chest.

 

“I’m guessing it’s Ryan since i swear to god you look at him like he’s the last chicken nugget on earth sometimes.” Quinta said.

 

Shane protested, “You try loving someone for millennials and not being a little sentimental. Also how can you blame me when the man is just plain cute.”

 

“Don’t get all mushy on me Shane”

 

After that Quinta and Shane became closer due to their shared pasts. They exchanged stories about all the weird things about their life as mortals. Shane learned Quinta had minor mind control but it was mostly suggestion and she couldn’t force people to do anything. Quinta kindly let him gush disgustingly about Ryan whenever he was feeling particularly gushy.

 

Quinta decided to play Cupid for him and decided to bring the dorks together. Shane was freaking out the first time they ended up in the same video. But Ryan and him seemed to get along in a snarky bickering sort of way. Shane would be damned if he said it out loud but Ryan was kind of hot when he was fired up when Shane told him that ghosts don’t exist. A little hypocritical from a man who could actually see them but he lived to irk Ryan.

 

They eventually began hanging out more outside of work as well as Ryan and Shane had some mutual friends. Shane learned little things about Ryan like how his laugh always devolved into a wheeze.  Also things like how he had a small potted plant collection and that he had given names to each of them. The more he learned about Ryan, the more he became desperate to give him his symbol of power. The only problem is that he could only do that if Ryan was in love with him. It seemed like a bullshit clause but when was his world ever fair.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter might take a bit since I don't have that prewritten or anything but I have some ideas. Also I am really debating on writing a RIcky Goldsworth/Demon Shane fic but we'll see.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took awhile but I was a little stuck on where I wanted to go with this chapter.

Shane was expecting a quiet work day that was free of worrying that your reincarnated soulmate doesn’t end up accidently dead by messing with the wrong supernatural creature but clearly he set the bar too high.

 

He was making himself a nice relaxing cup of coffee to start his morning and in walks Ryan. He was looking as cute as ever and Shane was smiling into his coffee. It seemed like a great start to his day.

 

“Hey Ryan,” Shane said.

 

“Hey Shane,” Ryan said before continuing, “Listen I have this cool video idea that I’m doing Brent.”

 

“Oh?,” Shane said, “What is it?”

 

“So I was thinking of starting this series where we investigate unsolved crimes but we also investigate paranormal cases as well. Wouldn’t it be crazy if I got real footage of a ghost?” Ryan said.

 

“Seeing as ghosts are not real, don’t hold your breath. But still that sounds pretty cool Ryan,” Shane replied.

 

“I’ll make you eat your words when I get some real definitive evidence,” Ryan said.

 

“I’ll count on it Ryan,” Shane said.

 

It wasn’t until he got to his desk and started working when he started thinking again about Ryan’s new idea. Although for your average ghost hunter, the probability of you running into something real was slim, it may be a different case for Ryan. Reincarnated gods often attracted spirits and creatures as they still gave off some of their aura that they did as gods. Especially as Persephone, Ryan would be a magnet to all the spirits who could sense him. In contrast, Shane repelled most spirits as often they knew they had nothing to gain by bothering the god of the underworld. At the end of the day though, Ryan was most likely not go anywhere that was actually haunted so Shane tried to relax and focus on his work.  

 

About a month had passed and Ryan’s new video series was going well it seemed. Shane had of course watched every episode for scientific reasons clearly. He definitely wasn’t obsessed with the voice that Ryan adopted for his explanations. Also he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he thought that Ryan looked adorable when he got all worked up about something.

 

Weeks past and the series was gaining a lot of popularity. Ryan seemed to be really happy that his pet project was doing so well. That was why SHane was concerned when Ryan came in to work looking kind of upset. Shane decided to go up to him and ask what was bothering him.

 

“Is something wrong?” Shane said.

 

Ryan replied, "It's nothing I just have a small problem with my Buzzfeed Unsolved videos."

 

“Oh what happened?” Shane said with concern.  


“Well basically Brent decided that he couldn’t continue hosting with me because the investigation freak him out too much. I respect that but now I need to find someone else to fill in,” Ryan said.

 

He silently thanked the Fates for this opportunity. He would get the chance to be around Ryan more. Hopefully they would get closer through this. 

 

“I would be glad to fill in for Brent,” Shane replied.

 

“Really Shane,” Ryan said, giving him those eyes that made him weak in the knees.

 

“Yeah sure I’m free and I’ve actually been keeping up with the episodes and I really like the concept of the series,” Shane replied.

 

So once they smoothed out the details, Shane had officially joined the team. They would begin filming in the next couple days. He hoped for Ryan’s sake that people didn’t mind the host change. But he guessed they would find out soon enough.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter than I intended but the chapter achieved what it was meant to do which was get the ghoul boys together.

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up @honeyedbuns on tumblr to yell about shyan or fanfic ideas or both.


End file.
